Journal of Forensic Psychology

Abstract

Reconceptualising Psychopathy

Stephen Mihailides, Roslyn Galligan and Glen Bates

This work re-engineers theory about psychopathy, by redevelopment of core assumptions about psychopathy. In that redevelopment, the origins of current theory are traced, to analyse critically the post Cleckley period of construct development. The discordances in competing lines of existing theory become a precursor to theoretical innovation. The notion of paradoxical superfunctioning-a topical feature of Cleckley's work is recognised as having utility for redefining theory. This precedes fundamental reformulation of theory of psychopathy, where the focus is upon the implications of normal levels of psychopathy for adaptive human functioning. Psychopathy is formulated as a statetrait construct. The principle of dynamism is deployed to guide understanding of how state levels of psychopathy may vary by context. Tenets of a State-Psychopathy Hypothesis are organised within assumptions of evolutionary psychology. Psychopathy is interlocked within the functions of the innate survival and predatory instincts of a territorial, human organism. Psychopathy is defined within evolutionary theory's modularity of mind framework. Implications recognise that empathy and psychopathy co-occur at normal levels of both constructs. The Directional Vector Hypothesis is developed to reconcile this expected co-occurrence, which proposes that there is a dual processing capacity for empathic and psychopathic cognition. New theory therefore predicts that empathy and psychopathy are not mutually exclusive. Psychopathic cognition for normal populations is defined as occurring within a quarantined zone of the mind, as a targeting scanner that sweeps socio-cultural environments, scanning for threat. New theory predicts that experimentally manipulating survival threat should impact psychopathy levels for normal populations.